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MILITAEY SKETCH 



OF THE 



PBESENT WAE IN AMEEICA, 



FROM ITS COMMENCEMENT IN 1861 



TO THE END OF MARCH 1862. 



READ AT THE ROYAL UNITED SERVICE INSTITUTION, 
25th APRIL, 1862, 

BY MAJOB MILLEB, B.A., tf.e, 

TOPOGRAPHICAL STAFF. 



" And little of this great world can I speak 

More than pertains to feats of broil and battle." 

Othello. 



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MILITARY SKETCH 



OF THE 



PRESENT WAR IN AMERICA. 



The interest which we naturally feel in the American war has been 
fed from day to day by the special correspondence of the leading journals, 
and the ordinary intelligence of daily or weekly papers. But those 
notices, valuable as they are for the preparation of regular narratives, are 
apt to confuse as much as they inform us, unless we have the opportunity 
to treat them as a study. They group together events widely separated 
from one another both in time and place : they include, in one short 
paragraph, intelligence from the Atlantic coast and the rivers of the 
West ; they give one day flying reports which they contradict the next, 
and they republish the same incidents in a new form a month afterwards. 
When, therefore, I was asked to give a lecture on the subject, I felt that I 
might do some service in collating these scattered accounts, and in pro- 
ducing a connected sketch from their voluminous materials. Brief and 
incomplete as the result may be, it may yet lighten the labour of other 
students, or increase the interest of following the future operations, by 
rendering more clear those which are past 

I need hardly say that a lecture delivered in this room should be some- 
thing more than a mere summary of facts. If it treats of military 
history, it should point out how far principles were vindicated by the 
results of observing or neglecting established rules, and how any new 
weapon or any new feature in the equipment of an army influenced its 
movements or affected its achievements. If this ideal is but little 
realized, I must, in this instance, beg your indulgence ; I could only give 
an hour or two of the evening to my task, and it is far more laborious to 
hunt for facts through the extensive columns of daily papers than to 
study a subject when it is already arranged in books. Moreover, it is 
much more difficult to describe concisely half a dozen disconnected opera- 
tions, without definite beginning, without unity of plan, and not yet 
ended, than to master a campaign directed by skilful commanders and 
executed by men well acquainted with their work. 

B 



2 MILITARY SKETCH 

This last difficulty will diminish as the war progresses, and there is a 
far higher interest connected with the present operations than with the 
desultory marches and petty skirmishes in the first months of the war. 
When once the men can be relied on for marches and manoeuvres, when 
they are able to do what an army ought, there is no reason why the cele- 
brated campaigns of the Old World should not be equalled in the New. 
America may yet produce generals of the highest order, but it is to be 
wished that she should refrain from giving them names in anticipation of 
their achievements. 

My purpose being to touch upon such points only as might be developed 
into a military history, I pass over in silence the causes which led to the 
separation of the Southern and the Northern States. But we ought to 
bear in mind the time at which a rupture was seriously spoken of as not 
only possible but probable, because we may fairly presume that the mili- 
tary preparations, on one side at least, may be traced back to that date. 

It was in the early part of November, 1860, when the success of the 
Eepublican party in the contest for electing a President was no longer 
doubtful, that excitement began to be shown ; it gained strength when the 
result of the ballot was declared: and serious apprehensions began to be 
felt, which were soon to be fully realized. On the 13th December certain 
representatives from Southern States had a meeting at Washington, in 
which they declared that all hope of an honourable adjustment was extin- 
guished, and that their only refuge lay in a prompt secession. Within a 
few days the declaration was reduced to practice. On the 19th December 
South Carolina took the lead, and resolved, by a unanimous vote, to with- 
draw from the Federal Constitution ; Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, and 
Georgia followed her example early in January, and in all these States 
possession was taken of the forts and arsenals, which were generally left 
without any military force to protect them. Fort Pickens, near Pensacola, 
and Fort Sumter, at the entrance to Charleston harbour, escaped this fate 
from having small garrisons of regular troops. The surrender of the 
latter was officially demanded from President Buchanan by a Special 
Commissioner sent to Washington, and, of course, refused. 

But, though not yielding in this point, the Government remained almost 
inactive. The President said that he refrained from sending any rein- 
forcements to a threatened point lest they should be regarded as a menace 
of coercion, and thus furnish to the disaffected an excuse for an outbreak. 
Afterwards the Secretary of War announced that reinforcements would be 
sent to any post if they were demanded by the officer in charge, or if they 
seemed to be required for safety's sake. With this the people were 
content ; New York quietly followed her commercial business, and Wash- 
ington swarmed with place-hunters, anxious only about getting appoint- 
ments under the new administration. The Seceders, on the other hand, 
declared their intention of seizing those forts which had hitherto escaped 
their grasp ; they began to throw up batteries, and put guns in position, 
to enrol men, and prepare munitions of war ; at Charleston, which had 
become the point of principal interest, an attack on Fort Sumter was daily 
expected. 

Nearly two months passed in this manner. Major Anderson, the officer 
in command at Fort Sumter, demanded reinforcements, but the Cabinet, 



OF THE PRESENT WAR IN AMERICA. 3 

not acting up to the Secretary's announcement, was divided in opinion 
about sending them, and reports were generally current that the place 
would be given up. The very day was mentioned. On the 23rd of 
March the garrison was to be withdrawn, and an opposite rumour that 
such a step was not quite decided was positively contradicted by a Wash- 
ington paper. 

With this chance of obtaining possession by fair means, the Confederate 
States, as they began to call themselves, were for the time content ; there 
was too much risk connected with a war to hurry on without necessity 
such a step as must inevitably cause one. But on the 6th of April there 
came news that reinforcements of men and an armed squadron had been 
ordered to Charleston; then their activity broke into new life; 5,000 
more men were called out, fresh batteries were thrown up, the supplies of 
food hitherto allowed to go from the town to the fort were immediately 
stopped, and Major Anderson was summoned to surrender the place. 

On receiving his refusal the attack was ordered. Firing from the bat- 
teries began at four o'clock on the morning of the 12th of April; it lasted 
all that day, and was renewed on the next. Several steamers, tardily 
arrived with the reinforcements on board, watched the cannonade from 
the harbour's entrance. At one o'clock the Federal flag was hauled down, 
and Major Anderson surrendered on easy terms. 

As being the first collision in so remarkable a war, this cannonade of 
Fort Sumter has a claim upon our interest, but the contemporary accounts 
in the American papers threw over it such an air of burlesque as it will 
hardly recover in the present generation. Stripped of its historical im- 
portance it has but little left; the contest may have been severe and the 
gallantry great, but one could not resist a smile on learning that a salute 
which was fired to celebrate the victory, and during which a gun burst, 
killing two men and wounding four others, did in a moment more serious 
mischief than was inflicted by the two parties together, during the inces- 
sant cannonade of one day and a half. 

The news of the Federal troops having been driven by force out of the 
last point which remained to them between Chesapeake Bay and the Gulf 
of Mexico stirred up the indignation of the North. The apathy of the 
people was immediately changed into an intense excitement, and the 
passive attitude of the Government was succeeded by a due energy. War 
was formally declared on the next day but one to the receipt of the intel- 
ligence; 75,000 of the militia were ordered out by the same proclamation; 
three weeks afterwards 42,000 volunteers were called for, 22,000 men 
added to the regular army, and 18,000 seamen decreed for the navy. 

These troops were to be furnished in set proportions by the various 
States, and the demand for them became a test of allegiance; in the north 
and north-west they were enthusiastically furnished ; in other directions 
they were emphatically refused. The Governor of Missouri denounced 
immediately and strongly the requisition of troops for such an object. 
" Not one man," said he, " will the State of Missouri furnish to carry on 
such an unholy crusade." The Governor of Kentucky used similar lan- 
guage. Tennessee, Arkansas, Virginia, and North Carolina went further; 
they seceded. In Maryland the Legislature adopted a resolution which 
condemned the war; the Governor objected to troops from the Northern 

b2 



4 MILITARY SKETCH 

States going through Baltimore, and the lower classes actually opposed 
their passage. A Massachusetts regiment on its way to Washington had 
to fight its way through the mob, and a Pennsylvanian regiment not yet 
supplied with arms was driven back from the town. To make the route 
positively impracticable the railway bridges were destroyed. So deter- 
mined was the opposition, that levies from New England had to be sent 
round by sea from New York to the head of the Chesapeake, until (about 
the 14th of May) Baltimore was forcibly occupied by Federal troops, the 
railway guarded by sentinels, and martial law proclaimed. 

Rapidly as the call to arms was answered on the north side of the 
Potomac, it could not prevent the loss of two important places which the 
mere presence of a few hundred men would have saved. On the 18th of 
April, a body of Virginians went to seize Harper's Ferry, where there was 
an arsenal with 15,000 stand of arms. Hearing of their approach, and 
unable to oppose it, the officer in charge filled the buildings with straw, 
set fire to the establishment, and departed. On the same day the navy 
yard at Norfolk was likewise abandoned and burnt. The ships lying in 
ordinary there . were fired, or scuttled and sunk ; and the only one in 
commission, the " Cumberland," was towed away. Nearly a year after- 
wards this ship was run into and sunk by the " Merrimac," one of those 
which the Federals had tried to destroy. 

Washington itself was in considerable danger for a fortnight after the 
outbreak at Charleston ; its escape was due to the enemy's weakness only, 
for it had no troops in garrison, and its situation was most exposed ; on 
one side was Virginia, which had actually seceded, and on the other was 
Maryland opposing the passage of troops sent to its aid. However, by 
the last week in May, militia and volunteers had arrived in sufficient 
numbers to make it tolerably secure, and the newspapers had already 
planned magnificent and immediate operations, such as would crush out 
in a few weeks what they called the rebellion, and re-establish the Federal 
authority in every State. It is, then, from this time — from about the 1st 
of May — that the actual campaign may be said to begin ; let us, there- 
fore, in anticipation of it, cast a glance at the strength and resources of 
the rival Powers. 

Both being without any standing army — for the few regiments em- 
ployed to watch the Indian tribes were but a cipher compared to the 
numbers now required — we may turn at once to the population as an 
index of the force which might with equal convenience be raised on either 
side; and, having deducted from the census returns the neutral States and 
the slave populations, we shall see that by this rule the Federals would 
send into the field 340,000 for every 100,000 raised in the South. This 
is, of course, on the supposition that an equal desire to fight pervaded 
both masses of people ; but if there were only half the enthusiasm for the 
Union as for Secession, still the men of the South, as they buckled on 
their swords or shouldered their muskets, must expect to be outnumbered 
in every engagement. Sooner or later, this human tide from the North 
would be pressing upon them ; and where were they to look for means of 
strengthening their hold or of stopping its progress ? Not to fortified 
places, for inland there were none. Not to greater facilities for moving 
troops from point to point, for to every forty miles of railroad in the 



OF THE PRESENT WAR IN AMERICA. 5 

South there were one hundred in the North; and assuredly not to the 
artillery and small arms, for in these the inferiority of the South was far 
more conspicuous. There were but few good weapons in the arsenals and 
stores, and but few manufactories capable of producing them ; without 
the command of the sea, munitions of war could not be obtained from 
foreign countries, and the stock might be exhausted quicker than it could 
be supplied. 

These, then, were the circumstances under which the war began. Six- 
teen States of the North were arrayed against eleven of the South, and 
three were neutral or divided. The North had, as compared with the 
South, more than three times the white population, great advantages in 
equipment, manufactories, and railway communication; an entire com- 
mand of the sea, and fourteen times the naval resources : its commerce 
would remain unharmed, except by an occasional privateer ; and every- 
thing needful might be made at home or obtained from abroad. The 
South must expect to see its trade ruined, its coasts invaded, its rivers 
made thoroughfares at the enemy's convenience, the divided States won by 
force, and then — then the resistance she might continue to offer must 
depend on the unity of sentiment among all classes, and the degree of 
resolution which survived the trial. She might find in history glorious 
examples of great invasions being successfully resisted, and of weak 
inhabitants becoming invincible in the defence of their own firesides ; but 
such a contest is full of bitterness and misery, and success depends on 
moral qualities, of whose existence we cannot be sure until we see their 
effects. 

I will not pretend to guide you to any conclusions beyond what are 
based on the rude comparisons I have made ; but those I beg you to keep 
in mind in observing the successive phases of the war. 

For six weeks alter war was declared the Federal troops were almost 
shut up in their own capital; it was not till the 23rd of May that they 
even occupied the suburb of Alexandria, on the opposite side of the river ; 
and, having advanced so far, they remained stationary nearly two months, 
fortifying the outskirts, spending most of their time in the bar-rooms of 
the town, and talking always of advancing to Richmond " next week." 
The world in general, knowing how unfit they yet were for anything but 
their present employment, watched with more interest the two isolated 
forts called Pickens and Monroe, both of which were surrounded by 
Secessionists, greedy of a second bloodless victory. 

Fort Monroe, which stands at the entrance to the James River, opposite 
Norfolk, had been strongly reinforced by the first arrivals from the 
North, and its commander made an effort to rid himself of his beleaguers. 
His attempt furnished a curious example of the blunders which may be 
committed by raw soldiers in the hands of equally raw officers. 

Two columns, starting from different points, were to unite at the 
meeting of two roads, and proceed together against the enemy's position. 
The march was made at night, and the attack was to begin at daybreak. 
At the appointed time the first regiment arrived at the fork of the roads, 
and the second had approached to a hundred yards distance, when, 
without a word of notice, the first opened fire with artillery and musketry 
upon it. How such a fatal blunder could have been made seems inex- 
plicable, especially as the artillery fire proves it was not confined to a few 



6 MILITARY SKETCH 

bewildered men. There was no enemy in sight to make a confusion 
between friend and foe ; there could have been no enemy in the direction 
from which this unfortunate regiment had arrived. The incident is a 
practical caution against using such troops for the most simply combined 
movements, and other instances occurred in course of the campaign to 
show that there was a continual risk of such a mistake. 

The rest of the actions in this neighbourhood were principally engage- 
ments between coast batteries and gunboats on the Chesapeake, and 
creeks communicating with it, — engagements too numerous to describe, 
too unimportant to dwell upon ; it was on the other side of Washington 
that the prospects or circumstances of either side were first influenced by 
force of arms. 

Western Virginia, widely separated from the rest of the State by the 
parallel ranges of the Alleghany Mountains, is equally distinct in the 
general occupations of its inhabitants, and, as a natural consequence, in 
its political opinions. It held to the North; it declared itself against 
secession from the Federal Government, but it inconsistently passed an 
ordinance of secession from its own State, and proposed to create itself into 
a fresh one by the name of Kanawha: in the meantime it invited the 
presence of Federal troops for the protection and encouragement of the 
loyal inhabitants. In consequence of this appeal, M'Clellan moved thither 
from Cincinnati, on the Ohio, and entered on the campaign with energy 
and good fortune. His first success was at Grafton, a station where the 
railway to Wheeling joins that which connects Cincinnati with Harper's 
Ferry and Washington ; his next was at Philippa, where he surprised one 
of the enemy's camps. Turning then towards the hill ranges, he attacked 
and defeated Colonel Pegram at Eich Mountain, and on the following day 
had a much more important success at Beverley, where he took six guns, 
and claimed to have routed 10,000 men, though, more probably, half that 
number. Coming up with the retreating army at Huttonville, he routed 
them again, and General Garnett, their leader, was slain. A detached 
force, acting under his orders in the Kanawha Valley, also had some 
success at Barbourville. By this series of defeats, suffered within six 
weeks, secession was crushed in that part of the country, and the State 
Government established at Wheeling was recognised at Washington as the 
Government of Virginia. 

The cause fared but little better in that mountainous tract which lies 
between Western Virginia and Washington. Harper's Ferry is at the 
point where the easternmost ridge, as it is generally shown in maps, runs 
up to the River Potomac; and the neighbourhood, on either side of the 
river, was occupied by about 15,000 Southern troops, sent up to help 
those who had made the original seizure. So imjjortant a point was not 
likely to remain undisturbed, and at the end of May large bodies were 
moving thither from Pennsylvania. Their point of assembly was at 
Chambersburg, whence they made an advance in force on the 12th of 
June; from Washington 6,000 men advanced at the same time, and a 
column was reported to be coming simultaneously from the West. Not 
venturing to oppose this combination, the Southerners* abandoned the 

* The term " Southerners " was used throughout the lecture to avoid any misappre- 
hension which might arise from the similarity of sound in Federals and Confederates. 



OF THE PRESENT WAR IN AMERICA. 7 

place in good time without firing a shot. They took the direction of 
Winchester, followed by a brigade of Federals under Cadwallader, but 
before coming to a halt they turned in a north-westerly direction, and 
encamped at Runker's Hill, twelve miles from Martinsburg. On observing 
them to take this advantageous position, Cadwallader's brigade retired to 
the ferry. In this camp the Southerners remained for a fortnight, making 
one or two successful expeditions, but otherwise inactive. On the 2nd of 
July they received an attack, great and conclusive on paper, but without 
any apparent influence on their position, for on the 15th of the month the 
Federal forces, 15,000 strong, were again advancing upon them at the 
same place. General Patterson commanded these Federals ; he was par- 
ticularly instructed to threaten the Southerners at Winchester, and prevent 
them from joining their main body at Manassas, but he turned off to 
Charlestown, and, instead of holding the field, was said to be busy with 
plans for rebuilding bridges and re-opening canals. It is only fair to him 
to say that his division, composed of men organised on truly American 
principles, was as unsatisfactory a body as a general could be condemned 
to command. It numbered in all 20,000 men, out of which there were 
nineteen regiments whose short term of service was up, or would expire in 
a few days ; and fifteen of them, he said, refused to stop one hour beyond 
that time. A want of transport waggons, a deficiency only too likely to 
exist, was another excuse offered for him, but the Government had suffered 
by his mistake, and would not overlook it ; General Banks was sent to 
supersede him. 

To his inactivity in not preventing any junction between the Southern 
troops at Winchester and those at Manassas it was convenient to attribute 
a great share in the disaster at Bull's Run. Just at the time when he was 
operating in the valley beyond the Blue Eidge, the authorities at Wash- 
ington, encouraged by M'Clellan's successes, had given way to the eager- 
ness of the people, and the Grand Army of the Potomac, so called by its 
admirers, had started for Richmond. You cannot need reminding what 
the result of that advance was. You cannot have forgotten how the 
American papers pronounced that the Grand Army might make another 
triumphal march to Canada as soon as it had reaped the laurels of this ; 
nor how the Grand Army returned to Washington in a panic-stricken 
mass, officers and men hurrying along without their arms in terror and 
dismay, shamelessly spreading as they ran the news of their own igno- 
minious defeat. But you may not remember so well the steps which led 
to that contemptible result, and those I will therefore briefly recapitulate. 

The forces which marched from Washington on the 16th of July con- 
sisted of 30,000 infantry, 10 squadrons of cavalry, and 60 guns, organised 
in five divisions of unequal strength General M'Dowell commanded the 
whole. The enemy's force was not so well known ; his main body was 
near Manassas, where two converging lines of railway gave him easy com- 
munication with all the Southern States; his position was said to be 
naturally strong and skilfully fortified, but the nature of the works, and 
the number of the men to defend them, had been artfully kept secret. 

On the 18th of July a skirmish at Centreville, magnified by the news- 
papers into a battle, and construed as a victory because the Southerners 
retired, raised the hopes and confidence of the expedition; the 19th and 



8 MILITARY SKETCH 

20th were spent in reconnoitering ; and on Sunday the 21st the battle was 
fought. — C See plan.) 

Between Centreville and Manassas there is a brook or river, called 
Bull's Run ; the two roads by which it could most easily be crossed were 
strongly held by the enemy, but at three miles up the stream there was an 
unguarded ford, and another, at half the distance, almost unprotected. 
General M'Dowell therefore determined to move his main body round by 
ihese, to turn the enemy's left, and destroy the railway on that side. On 
the lower of the two roads a feint was made to distract the enemy's atten- 
tion; by the other road two brigades advanced over the stream, and joined 
their line to that of the brigades which had crossed by the upper fords. 
Up to three o'clock in the afternoon all went well, but till then Beau- 
regard, of the South, had not brought all his force into action. An 
important order had miscarried. He had intended to make a decisive 
attack early in the day by that road which M'Dowell had avoided to 
force, and had sent the necessary instructions to the general on that side; 
but, learning that nothing had been" done towards executing this project, 
and seeing that his left was already pressed, he thought better to move to 
the support of the left wing the troops intended for the attack, than to risk 
a repulse there, which might neutralise his success elsewhere. It was not 
till this movement was completed that the Federals' determination was 
put to the proof. The issue was not yet decided, when there came on 
the field a brigade from that force which General Patterson was to have 
kept in check (part of it had previously arrived), and a second detach- 
ment leaving the train before arriving at the usual station, marched 
across the country, and fell upon the Federals' right and rear. a Their 
fire," says General M'Dowell, u caused our men to break and retire, and 
this soon degenerated into disorder, for which there was no remedy. 
Every effort was made to rally them, even beyond the reach of the enemy's 
fire, but in vain ; the battalion of regular infantry alone moved up, and 
maintained itself until our men could get down to the road on the way 
back." 

Observe, I beg, how that sentence illustrates the effect of discipline, 
and the difference between trained and untrained men; one battalion of 
real soldiers came forward at need to protect the flight of twenty times 
their number. But those who fled, and continued to flee, still victims to 
their panic, when the danger was far behind them, take at least a higher 
place in our opinion than those who left the ranks that day without 
striking a blow. The 4th Pennsylvania Volunteers and a battery of the 
New York Militia turned homewards as the army went into battle because 
their three months of service had expired. Not overlooked nor unsolicited ; 
General M'Dowell wrote to the regiment, and the Secretary of War ap- 
pealed to the battery, trying to induce them to remain, if it were but five 
days longer; but they insisted on their immediate discharge, and on the 
morning of the 21st they moved to the rear, as General M'Dowell says, 
a to the sound of the enemy's cannon." A disclosure humiliating but 
not unprecedented. I could not mention a parallel case out of America, 
because the conditions of military service elsewhere are so widely different ; 
but in the American War of Independence it occurred, sadly often, that 
men enlisted for a few months only, refused to remain in arms beyond 



SKETCH 

To Illustrate the Operations 

NEAR 

WASHINGTON. 

1861. 



Scale of "Miles 

12 3 4= 5 

1 I I I I I 




IRJobl 



OF THE PRESENT WAR JN AMERICA. 9 

that term, however imminent an action might seem, or however important 
their presence might be. We have seen how another part of this army 
suffered from the same defect, and it only remains for us to wonder that a 
system, which General Washington had so strongly denounced, should 
have been allowed to give further proofs of its utter badness. 

General Beauregard stated his total force to be 27,000, and the casualties 
to amount to 393 killed and 1,200 wounded. M'Dowell reported 481 killed 
and 1,011 wounded. He estimates the number who actually crossed Bull's 
Eun at 18,000, but that does not include four brigades posted on the roads 
at or near Centreville. On the whole, we may consider the forces and 
casualties as pretty evenly divided ; but if the missing men in the Federal 
army could have been accurately numbered on the night of the 21st, a 
formidable total would have been exhibited. 

The Southerners took no advantage of their victory; they merely re- 
occupied the heights near Alexandria, which they had once before held, 
and the new alarm which they inspired at Washington soon died away. 
They certainly cannot be said to have taught their enemies how to 
conquer, and yet this defeat had a more beneficial effect on the discipline 
and efficiency of the Federal army than if it had been an easy victory. 
Taught by the mortification of failure, the authorities saw the necessity of 
a more active commander and a more strict control; they turned to 
M'Clellan, as the only general whose ability had yet been stamped with 
success, and placed him at the head of the army. 

Leaving his division in Western Virginia, he arrived at Washington on 
the 26th, and addressed himself forthwith to the hard task of turning 
Americans into soldiers. He succeeded well in that respect; the streets 
of Washington were less infested by idle officers and men, but the cam- 
paign was not advanced. Its history for the next six months, in this 
district, may be dismissed in a few words. The army was confined to 
the intrenchments round Washington till the 28th September, when the 
Southerners unexpectedly retired from the advanced position they had 
held. In moving out to occupy the deserted posts, certain regiments 
managed to repeat the blunder committed at Little Bethel, and fired upon 
one another with fatal effect. Eastern Virginia was occupied in 
November, and some great reviews took place; a few skirmishes, of 
which one will be noticed by and bye, may also be picked out of the 
American news, but no division of the army contributed so little to the 
first annals of the war as that which was called the Grand Army of the 
Potomac. 

In Western Virginia the troops from which M'Clellan had been removed 
fell under the command of General Eosecranz, and seemed, by the news- 
paper accounts, to keep up their reputation for activity and good fortune. 
Scarcely a mail arrived without the news of some gallant skirmish or 
important victory, but the result of them all was that the little campaign 
which began at Gawley Bridge on the Kanawha terminated at the very 
same point; and the neighbourhood of Beverley, where M'Clellan had 
won his last battle, was the scene of another victory ten weeks afterwards. 
In short, when the troops went into winter quarters they were no further 
advanced in the State than they had been four months earlier in the 
year. 



10 MILITARY SKETCH 

In the north of Virginia there were also many little combats of a 
kindred nature to those in the West, similarly described and equally ex- 
tolled, but foiled by one reverse which could neither be passed over in 
silence nor transformed into a victory. Being of more importance and 
interest than the rest, it claims a few moments of your attention. At Lees- 
burg, 30 miles north-west from Washington, a part of the Southern army 
was stationed, the Potomac River, a few miles off, separating the outposts 
from those of the Federal division under General Banks, whose head- 
quarters were at Darnstown — (see plan). Under him was General Stone 
at Poolesville, and Colonel Baker commanded the regiments nearest to the 
river. To this officer General Stone sent a sudden and laconic order to 
make a dash at Leesburg. Over the river, swollen with heavy rains, 400 
men were sent by night in a few small boats ; in the early morn they 
pushed on boldly, but rashly without support, to Leesburg, found the 
enemy there, and were quickly obliged to return to the river side. Small 
reinforcements were sent over to their help, and in the afternoon Colonel 
Baker came to take the command. The Southerners were superior in 
number, but had no artillery ; the Federals had three guns, but the ground 
was unfavourable for their use. About four o'clock Colonel Baker was 
shot, and the Federals, gradually despairing of driving back the enemy, 
began to seek means for their own retreat. And then came the terrible 
scene which cannot fail to come when the rushing current of a wide river 
has to be crossed by beaten men with insufficient means at their disposal : 
such scenes have been often described, and only repeat themselves; let 
figures tell the story of this. Of 1,800 men who had left the Maryland 
side, one-third were left on the opposite bank, the three pieces of artillery 
were lost, and in one regiment there were said to be only two swords, and 
not one musket, left. 

So great was the alarm created by this disaster that the Federals might 
have suffered seriously if they had been attacked immediately in that part 
of the line ; but except that the Southern troops at Leesburg were rein- 
forced, as if such a thing were intended, the action at Edward's Ferry (or 
Ball's Bluff) made no difference in their relative situations, and within a 
couple of months a chance skirmish took place between Leesburg and 
Washington, in which the fortune of war inclined to the opposite side. 
The scene of the encounter was at Drainesville, and the contest was occa- 
sioned by sending an expedition to take a quantity of forage which the 
Secessionists had collected there. The action was sharper than usual ; on 
each side a brigade with some artillery was engaged, but that of the 
Federals was stronger than the other, and the affair lasted but one hour. 
Forty of the enemy were found dead on the ground, and fifty loads of 
forage, with two ammunition waggons, were brought back in triumph to 
Washington. 

In the same column of the " Times " with the official report of the 
Drainesville engagement there was also the announcement that elsewhere 
a camp had been surprised, and the Southerners in it, with their arms, 
waggons, and tents, captured by hundreds. At first sight it seemed to 
form part of the operations in or near Virginia ; it was really as indepen- 
dent of them in plan as it was remote in situation, and to the country 
where it happened I must now invite your attention, a country as far from 



OF THE PRESENT WAR IN AMERICA. 11 

Washington or the banks of the Potomac as the coasts of Africa or the 
boundaries of Eussia are from our own metropolis. 

Where the waters of the Ohio unite with the Mississippi, after inclining 
towards one another for 150 miles, public feeling is divided between 
attachment to the Union and determination to secede. Kentucky and 
Tennessee on the east, and Missouri on the west, long halted between 
the two opinions, and the southern counties of Illinois, above the meeting 
of the rivers, were affected by a Secessionist tendency, though they had 
not weight enough to control or influence the policy of the State. Cairo, 
therefore, as its most southern point, was early occupied by Federal 
troops, whilst Eandolph, below the doubtful States, was the headquarters 
of the Secessionist force. Thus stood the two parties when Fort Sumter 
fell, and President Lincoln called for troops to crush the rebellious South. 
In Missouri the Governor characterised the requisition — I quote his words 
— as " illegal, unconstitutional, revolutionary, inhuman, and diabolical ; " 
but there were many people ready to apply equally strong epithets to his 
own despatch, and a contest in the State immediately began. Forces 
were raised for the cause of the Union ; their appointed General, Lyon, 
refused to disband them at the Governor's order, and, when the State 
militia was called out to enforce the command, he began the campaign by 
attacking and defeating a part of it at Booneville. 

His personal career was but a short one. The Governor's troops, com- 
manded by General Price, having moved towards the south-west, he 
followed in pursuit. His van-guard engaged them at Carthage on the 5th 
of July, and his main body came up with them on the 10th of August, 
near Springfield. An action ensued, of which the result was important, 
and the description curious It begins by telling how 8,000 Federals 
attacked 23,000 Southerners, spread slaughter and dismay in their ranks, 
killed two of their generals, and destroyed all their tents and waggons: 
it ends by a brief remark that the very army which had done so much 
had retreated several miles, and might be considered safe. And by 
degrees these facts became evident, that it was the Federals who were 
defeated ; that they lost a gun ; that General Lyon was killed on the field, 
and that St. Louis itself was in danger of capture. 

Instead, however, of attacking the head-quarters of the Federalists, 
General Price took a northerly direction, and shortly appeared before 
Lexington, on the Missouri, where he was joined by a body of troops 
from the neighbouring state of Kansas, and fresh levies raised by Governor 
Jackson. An entrenched camp near the river was occupied by 3,500 
Federals ; on this, when his force was fully assembled, General Price 
opened fire; 1,500 men coming to its relief from Richmond, in the north- 
west, were easily driven back ; and on the evening of the 20th Septem- 
ber the place was surrendered. 

Its loss was angrily felt by the Federalists ; the whole garrison, with 
artillery, stores of considerable value, 900,000 dollars in money, and an 
important position, had been allowed to fall into the enemy's hands ; strong 
indignation was expressed against General Fremont, who commanded at St. 
Louis, for omitting to send such reinforcements as would have prevented 
it, and preparations were made to recover the post. Fremont himself 
started on this expedition, but by the time he reached Jefferson City, Price 



12 MILITARY SKETCH 

had retired towards the town of Independence, whence he soon returned 
to the south-west of the State. The Federals followed him in several 
divisions by various routes, and on the 25th October there was a skirmish 
between them at Springfield, but Price was expecting to be joined by a 
division under General M'Culloch, and till then it was not his interest to 
fight a battle. Even after the junction he continued to retire until he 
reached the boundaries of Arkansas. About that time a change took 
place in the command and movements of the Federal army. General 
Fremont was superseded by Hunter, and the divisions in this part of the 
State began to retrace their steps. Price in his turn became the pursuer, 
and was back at Springfield by the 25th November. 

During the winter months of December and January both parties re- 
mained inactive — the Federals did not claim a single victory. — February 
had arrived when they began to assemble their divisions preparatory to 
attacking Price, who was still in his old quarters at Springfield. When 
they advanced upon him he repeated his old tactics of retiring towards 
Arkansas — there the -fighting began. Whether he was brought to bay, or 
whether he voluntarily took the offensive, I cannot say; but there was a 
series of engagements extending over several days, and comprising an im- 
portant battle at a place near Bentonville, called Pea Ridge. In this, 
M'Culloch, one of Price's generals, was reported to be killed and the 
Southern force entirely dispersed, but I have seen no official despatch or 
authentic account of the battle ; and by the last intelligence the Federals 
had fallen back into Missouri, which is no sign of success, whatever policy 
may have dictated the step. Many of these victories assume very small 
proportions when measured by the results which attend them. 

You will do well to remember that all our intelligence is derived from 
Northern sources, and the accounts of one side only are never a safe 
authority. In any war we can only approach the truth by carefully weighing 
the statements of both parties, which, in this one, are beyond our reach. 
The case of the Southerners is that of the lions in the fable, who were 
always shown in pictures as being killed by man, because lions were never 
the painters. 

The engagement to which I referred on beginning this account of the 
war in Missouri, was one of those disconnected affairs with which every 
civil war abounds. Here they pervaded the whole State; in the north 
part they occurred near the Mississippi, or along the railway which 
connects the western interior with the great lakes of the North. In the 
south-east the scene of them was near Fredericton, the point in dispute 
there being apparently the command of that unfinished railway which is 
to give the town of St. Louis a direct communication with Memphis, and 
thence with the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Also from the 
frontiers of Kansas there were occasional tidings of conflicts, and along 
the banks of the Lower Mississippi parties of Federals from Cairo occa- 
sionally landed, fought, and returned whence they had set out. The 
Federals were undoubtedly stronger in arms, but their force was not 
applied with corresponding success. It was in Missouri as it had been in 
Virginia : the want of an established military system retarded the develop- 
ment of their resources, and impeded the application of their strength; 
it made the excellent weapons with which they were armed comparatively % 



OF THE PRESENT WAR IN AMERICA. 13 

useless in their hands; it put the wretchedly-equipped levies of the South 
on almost equal terms with their adversaries ; and, had not the vast 
numbers of the Federal army been assisted by an irresistible naval force, 
another season might have passed away without bringing any return for 
the profuse military outlay of the war. On the sea coast, where the broad- 
sides of the ships could overpower the batteries on land, bodies of Federal 
troops had lodged themselves ; in districts where any sympathy was 
shown by the people the superiority of the Federal strength had 
also made itself felt; and now an expedition was being prepared in which 
both these allies would be brought into play. Starting from Cairo for 
the invasion of Kentucky and Tennessee, and following the course of two 
navigable rivers, it would be accompanied by iron-plated gunboats, would 
be assisted by all the water transport of the country, and would penetrate 
two States whose inhabitants were partly favourable to its success. 

For a long time these two States had enjoyed an immunity from the 
scourge of the war. Kentucky professed a strict neutrality ; refusing to 
furnish troops to the North, it equally declined to secede with the South ; 
professing a desire for nothing but peace, it protested against either of the 
combatants occupying its soil or even crossing its territory. Tennessee, 
more committed to secession, was secure from hostilities so long as the 
protests of Kentucky were respected ; but at the beginning of September 
the Southerners presumed to occupy Hickman, and the Federals 
Paducah: both disregarded the Governor's injunctions to quit, and at 
once Kentucky became a new theatre of war. 

The Federals were along the Ohio River, the northern boundary of the 
State, posted principally at Cincinnati and Cairo, with a footing in the 
State at Louisville and Paducah. For them a perfect network of railways 
communicated with all parts of the rear. For the Southerners there were 
only two lines, leading from the Ohio River to the interior of the country ; 
one through Nashville, the other through Humboldt; but the natural 
features which had prevented the construction of railways might serve 
well in a defensive campaign, and the Cumberland Mountain range, which 
traverses the district, might prove a useful ally in time of need. 

Columbus on the Mississippi was for a time the principal Southern 
camp; but according as the Federals threatened to advance from Hen- 
derson, Louisville, and Cincinnati, Bowling Green in the centre was 
occupied by troops under General Buckner, and the western part by 
others, under General Zollicoffer. The latter was the first to be engaged. 
The Federals arrived in his neighbourhood early in October, and on the 
21st he made an unsuccessful attack upon them. Again, on the 13th of 
December, he was reported to be moving from Cumberland River to 
Somerset, and a fight was said to be imminent. On the 19th of January 
he fulfilled this expectation by again taking the initiative. How he had 
employed the interval of a month between places which are only twenty 
miles apart, I cannot explain; but the immediate inducement for the attack 
was that the enemy's force had divided — one part remaining in camp, 
whilst the other made a flanking movement. To seize this opportunity 
sounds both bold and wise, but the result was highly unfortunate ; General 
Zollicoffer himself was killed, his men were driven back to their camp, 
and, being pursued and attacked there, fled again, leaving behind them 



14 MILITARY SKETCH 

10 field guns, 100 waggons, 1,200 horses, and a great quantity of small 
arms and stores. General Crittenden, next in command, rallied them at 
Monticello, but soon made a further retreat, and the Federals followed 
them up. 

This defeat amounted to a disaster, so serious an aspect did it bear from 
every point of view. The loss of so much materiel was a serious blow to 
an army so imperfectly equipped. The loss of the position and disor- 
ganization of the troops exposed the flank of their main line to be turned 
by an enemy numerous enough to do so without risk, and the repulse itself 
had a disheartening effect on their courage, coming as it did in the wake 
of the long fruitless struggle in Missouri, and their recent defeat at 
Drainesville, in Virginia. I was near adding to the list another battle 
lately fought in the corner of Kentucky, near Pikeville, a hundred miles 
from Somerset, by which a Brigadier General Nelson suddenly became 
famous. The Confederates captured and slain by his skill were, it appeared, 
exactly 2,415, including two generals; and I should have liked to describe 
the wonderful manoeuvre — for it was a wonderful one — by which he was 
reported to have secured the result. 

But on coming to the newspapers of a fortnight's later date, I had to 
strike out the notes I had made. " Somebody," as Mr. Eussell said, " had 
blown the general's trumpet a little too loud and a little too long." There 
were 25 killed — not 400; there were 50 prisoners instead of 2,000; and 
the battle was without a manoeuvre at all ; " but it was a glorious victory," 
an American paper still said, " and has rejoiced the hearts of the nation 
and greatly cast down its enemies." Glorious or not (and I should say 
not), any success was valuable in that part of the State whilst General 
Thomas was moving from Somerset towards the Cumberland Mountains, 
and troops from Cincinnati and other points on the Ohio were marching 
southwards for Bowling Green. 

At this place, the junction of two railways, the Southerners were in con- 
siderable numbers, under General Buckner. Further west they were 
stronger still; 40,000 men were said to be at Columbus, and an attack 
upon Paducah was hinted at, but there was no fighting beyond a few 
skirmishes, until General Grant's expedition entered the State. 

With nineteen regiments of infantry, four of cavalry, and seven batteries 
of artillery, an important addition to the troops already in Kentucky, General 
Grant arrived at Paducah on the 15th January. A flotilla of gunboats, 
prepared to steam up any navigable river, was ready to take part in the 
expedition, and their heavy guns, protected by plated sides, were more 
numerous and far more formidable than the field artillery of the force. 
Fort Henry, against which the first operations were to be directed, was an 
earthwork on the river Tennessee, a little outside the boundary line of 
Kentucky; thrown up by the Federals during the previous summer, it 
had not strength of construction to resist a long attack from superior 
forces, and, commanded by higher ground on both sides of the river, it 
could only be regarded as an useful outpost, to be given up, when attacked, 
if it could not be adequately supported. Eeinforcements to the amount of 
three or four regiments were sent thither when it was first threatened, but 
these were barely enough to guard a retreat ; they encamped outside and 
retired without fighting ; only sixty men remained inside to fight the guns, 



OF THE PRESENT WAR IN AMERICA. 15 

which should have had twice or thrice that number for their service. When, 
therefore, the seven gunboats opened their fire, they reduced the place in 
one hour and ten minutes without any aid from General Grant, though in 
doing so they suffered more than twice the loss they inflicted on the 
garrison, and one was utterly disabled. A general, named Tilgham, and 
the sixty men, were taken prisoners ; ten heavy guns, ten light ones, and 
seventeen mortars were found in the place, and for what purpose the 
mortars could have been placed there I am at a loss to conceive. The 
fort itself was flooded by the rising of the stream, and had to be aban- 
doned within a week, a sufficient proof of the badness of the site. 

In the meantime General Grant had moved across from the Tennessee 
to the Cumber] and Eiver, which here runs in a parallel direction at ten 
miles distance. At Dover, on the Cumberland, the Southerners had 
entrenchments of considerable extent, held by a considerable body of 
men ; and they knew that much depended on the firmness of their stand 
here. Long before the fall of Fort Henry, before even the expedition 
had left Cairo, a Eichmond paper had noticed the threatening aspect of 
Buell's formidable force near Bowling Green, and had clearly pointed out 
the disasters that might ensue if this point were forced. Since then 
Thomas had defeated Zollicoffer in the east of the State, Mitchell's 
division had advanced to Bowling Green in the centre, and thirty-five 
regiments, aided by gunboats, were ready to attack their stronghold in 
the West. The crisis had become more serious ; to meet it they had 
sent for the general reputed to be their most able commander, Albert 
Johnson, and had brought Beauregard, the victor at Bull's Run, with 
15,000 men, from Virginia to Kentucky: neither of these, however, were 
at Dover when the fatal day arrived. 

The interval between the 6th February, when Fort Henry was taken, 
and the 15th February, when the entrenched position at Dover, called 
Fort Donnelson, was attacked, was spent in marching over the country 
and investing the place. At daylight on the 15th the action was begun 
by the opposite side ; the Southern generals, finding that they were 
surrounded by the enemy, cut off from supplies, and imperfectly defended 
by their earthworks, resolved to take the offensive, hoping to obtain at 
least such a success as would enable them to open a gap for retreat through 
the investing lines. For a time they were successful ; they drove back 
the right wing on the centre, and had managed to capture an entire field 
battery; but, whilst so engaged, part of their own entrenchments had 
been stormed and won, and their efforts to dispossess the new occupants 
were of no avail. The loss of this point, which commanded the rest of 
the line, made it doubtful whether they could hold out one more day; 
but retreat was again as difficult as it had been before the sortie, for the 
enemy had reoccupied his former positions, and all the day's labour had 
been thrown away. 

A second council of war was therefore held, and a very remarkable 
course was adopted. Of three generals, Floyd, the senior, thought it 
useless to fight, but vowed he would not surrender ; Pillow, the next, was 
in favour of fighting; Buckner, the third, preferred a surrender to every 
other course. That generals in council should hold opposite opinions is 
not extraordinary; but never, I should think, has any difference been 



16 MILITARY SKETCH 

terminated or reconciled like this. General Floyd gave up the command 
to Pillow, on condition of being allowed to retire with his own brigade ; 
Pillow in his turn made it over to Buckner on a similar condition, that 
his own personal movements should be left unfettered; and Buckner, 
then able to act on his own opinion, surrendered the whole force 
on no condition at all. This triple transfer finished the episode of Fort 
Donnelson. 

The Federals claim to have taken 13,300 prisoners, and a list, pur- 
porting to be official, gives by name the regiments, twenty in number, to 
which they belonged. General Pillow, however, reckoned the whole force 
at only 12,000, of whom many were killed during the action, and one 
brigade escaped. The discrepancy is large. The escape of General 
Floyd's brigade also requires explanation, for a single gunboat of the 
flotilla might have prevented it, and three or four thousand men could 
hardly have been embarked without being detected by a reasonably 
watchful enemy. 

On the day that the fate of Fort Donnelson was settled, Bowling Green 
likewise was occupied by the Federals. That the division there should 
soon unite with Grant's, that Nashville, which lies defenceless on the 
Cumberland River, should be taken without resistance, and that the 
Southerners should choose some point in the less accessible country on 
the south or south east for their next contest, was only to be expected. 
The question was, how far the Federals could dispense with the aid which 
the navigable rivers had hitherto offered them, both in convenience of 
transport and in power of artillery. At the time that I was writing this, 
a month after the news of Fort Donnel son's capture had arrived, the 
intelligence from that part of the country had dwindled to nothing, the 
advance was in abeyance; let us take the opportunity of tracing the 
various expeditions which have been made to vulnerable points on the 
Atlantic coast. 

They may be distinguished as Butler's, Sherman's, and Burnside's. 
Butler's, the first, mustering 4,000 men, and backed by men-of-war 
bearing 100 guns, left Fort Monroe on the 26th of August, and appeared 
coke Inlet, the evening of the 27th. This channel, 
or sea, was guarded by two small forts. To make 
them by land and sea, the disembarcation of the 
t j sea stopped it, and the men-of-war opened their 
t to be completed. Considering that the larger 
nly two -thirds of an acre, and that both were 
ng only 17 guns between them, we need not be 
succumbed. The smaller was evacuated the 
he second capitulated early next morning, and 
yuu prisoners, with 1,000 stand of arms, were included in the surrender. 
The casualties in them amounted to about fifty killed and wounded; on 
the other side there were none, owing to the troops not having been 
engaged, and the ships having judiciously kept as far off as possible. 
The fleet soon departed. The troops and a few gunboats remained to 
hold the place, but nothing occurred of sufficient importance to be men- 
tioned here; the conquest was barren of results; it did not stop the 
Southerners, as was intended, from navigating those inland seas; it did 



OF THE PRESENT WAR IX AMERICA. 17 

not serve as a base for further operations, and its occupation was attended 
with great sickness in the winter months. 

The next expedition, Sherman's, was on a larger scale. It was com- 
posed of fourteen regiments and one field battery ; its escort was twenty- 
seven men of war, with 400 guns, and its equipment included everything 
necessary for fortifying the point at which they might land. That point 
was a secret ; in reality it was not fixed, but was left for circumstances to 
decide. Port Royal was eventually chosen, and the ships weighed anchor 
on the 29th October. 

A severe storm on the way protracted the passage, scattered the fleet, 
and wrecked some of the transports. Arrived at Port Eoyal, the means 
of disembarking the regiments were found to be so much reduced, that 
the attack on the forts at the harbour's mouth was left to the ships alone. 
The bar which threatened to prevent the entrance of the larger men-of- 
war having been safely passed the engagement was opened. In four 
hours both of the principal batteries were silenced, and the Southerners' 
gunboats lying behind them, unable to render any efficient help, had dis- 
persed to seek their own safety. 

The white inhabitants of the neighbouring town of Beaufort fled ; the 
negroes remained, but there was as little aid to be got from the latter as 
there was Union feeling to be found in the former. The first use to which 
Port Royal was applied was to send from it those stone-laden ships which 
were to be sunk at the entry of Charleston Harbour, to close it, not only 
for the present, but the future, — to fill it and choke it for evermore. You 
remember, I dare say, what indignation was expressed in Europe at such 
a deed, and you may remember that, to turn away the reproach, the New 
York papers pleaded that they only wished to bar the entrance which 
they could not closely blockade, and that another, in some respects better, 
channel remained open as a proof of their forbearance. 

It is true that another channel did remain open, that they had forborne 
to close it; but the Admiralty chart suggests for that forbearance the 
charity which begins at home. The bar which stretches in front of 
Charleston is crossed by the main channel at six or seven miles from the 
forts at the harbour's mouth ; but it is crossed by the other channel at a 
few hundred yards only from the northern fort, and the deep water 
outside widens like a fan, so that obstacles to prevent the passage of ships 
must be sunk at that one point, or not at all. Whilst, therefore, in one 
case they could work their will in safety, in the other they must approach 
under the point-blank range of heavy guns. Judge for yourselves how 
far this may have effected the safety of the second channel. 

To return to Port Roj^al. At the end of November Tybee Island was 
occupied, by which the entrance to Savannah was commanded, and Fort 
Pulaski might be attacked : it has been attacked, is still under attack, 
but has not yet (10th April) fallen. In March, the activity which 
pervaded the whole war extended itself to this expedition, and two other 
places on the coast, Brunswick and Fernandina, each the terminus of a 
railway, were likewise seized; here we must leave it, that we may bring 
the narrative of General Burnside's expedition down to the same date. 

This expedition, starting, like Sherman's, for an unknown destination, 
sailed from the Chesapeake on the 11th January, just at the time when 

C 



18 MILITARY SKETCH 

Grant's force was assembling for the invasion of Tennessee. On the 15th 
it entered Hatteras Inlet, and on the 7th February it made an attack on 
the island of Roanoke, a spot already known to American history as the 
place where the first discoverers sent out by Raleigh were hospitably 
entertained by the Indians, and where the earliest settlement was made in 
the State whose capital now bears his name. The island, which 
commands the channel between Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds, is about 
twelve miles long, and was defended by 3,000 men, six batteries mounting 
forty-two guns, and eight steamers carrying two guns each. The 
Federals attacked it by land and sea. They were, as usual, superior in 
numbers, and the Southerners, as usual, had no defences of sufficient 
worth to restore the balance of strength. Their main body rested on an 
earthwork into which a man might walk, and which was attacked on 
three sides at once ; their retreat was limited by the extent of the 
island, and the result need hardly be told. Everything was lost: the gun- 
boats indeed retired to Elizabeth Town up a creek on the north side of the 
Sound, but were followed and destroyed there. 

Newbern, which is also within reach of the navy, fell, on the 14th 
March, after very similar operations ; Beaufort and Washington have 
been taken uncontested. Many, therefore, are the points at which the 
Federals have now effected lodgements in the rival republic ; I will 
briefly describe their present position (24th April). In Western Virginia 
they occupy the Kanawha Valley, and most of the country west of the 
Alleghany Mountains. In Northern Virginia they have begun to advance 
down the valley of the Shenandoah (an advance which occasioned the 
late action of Winchester), and have occupied the country for some 
distance from Washington towards Richmond, so far as it is not defended 
by the enemy. 

On the eastern side, near Fort Monroe, the army under General 
M'Clellan (no longer commanding in chief the whole of the forces) has 
safely landed from the boats which brought it down the Chesapeake, and 
is about to attack a formidable Southern division at Yorktown. At 
Beaufort (North Carolina), Fort Macon, held by a few hundred men, will 
probably soon fall into the Federals' hands, and Fort Pulaski, at Savannah, 
surrounded and famishing, is said, to have already offered a surrender.* 
Brunswick in Georgia, Fernandina and Jacksonville in Florida, have been 
occupied by the Federals. Fort Pickens has never been taken from them, 
and a formidable expedition of land and sea forces is engaged in the 
reduction of New Orleans. How it fares with them we are not allowed 
to know; a fortnight has passed since we heard of their being in the 
immediate neighbourhood, and so entirely is the press in the power of the 
Government that silence cannot mean success, whilst it may imply anything 
between victory and disaster. 

Far up the Mississippi, beyond the borders of Tennessee, the Federals 
have skilfully captured the island above New Madrid, called No. 10; and 
in the south of the same State, close to the point where the River Tennes- 
see enters Alabama, the greatest battle ever fought in America has just 
taken place. It was only on Wednesday last that the details were pub- 

* News of its capture arrived a few days afterwards. 



OF THE PRESENT WAR IN AMERICA. 19 

lished, and I need not enter into them. The Federal troops engaged were 
a part of General Grant's force, moved thither from Dover and Nashville, 
supported by those who had come through the middle of Kentucky from 
the Ohio. The Southerners had been collected from Pensacola and various 
other points ; their arrangements seem to have deserved success, and I 
regret to see that among their killed was the general reported to be their 
most able commander, Albert Sydney Johnston. His loss will be a blow 
to their confidence, which they can ill afford to suffer; and by his death 
America loses a good soldier who might have raised her military repu- 
tation . 

From Eastern Tennessee we have had no news of importance since 
Nashville was taken ; Kentucky I believe to be exclusively occupied by 
the Federals, and Missouri to be generally in their hands. 

If I have taken no notice of the combat between the " Monitor" and 
" Merrimac" it is because the result has not influenced the military progress 
of the war; its interest depends on considerations which would only distract 
your attention from the general history ; and to treat it as it ought to be 
treated would detain me too long. Already the narrative has extended so 
far, that I have but little time to touch upon the wide and inviting field 
of review, and the following brief remarks are all that I can venture to 
offer. 

With immense manufacturing resources, extensive commerce, and free- 
dom from public debt, the Federals had at the outset everything that a 
nation could want for the purposes of war, except an army. For want of 
it their capital had once been burnt, but during the fifty years which fol- 
lowed they encountered no foe more formidable than Texas and Mexico, 
and, far from desiring to change their military system, they held it to be 
the best that they could maintain. Their militia was reckoned at three 
millions ; their regular army numbered seventeen weak regiments, whose 
companies, employed in guarding the interior States against Indian forays, 
did not form one single brigade of the troops sent into the field. It was, 
therefore, with untrained men, inexperienced officers, and generals snatched 
from civil pursuits, that the Federals talked of conquering forthwith the 
seceded States. If they had fulfilled one hundredth part of their task in 
the time they named the world would have been amazed. The profes- 
sional soldier's life would, indeed, be wasted, and his occupation might 
well be gone, if thousands of men thus hurriedly called under arms could 
be marched and manoeuvred at will. That they could be thus handled 
no disinterested person was sanguine enough to suppose, but nothing less 
than an unmitigated failure like Bull's Run would have convinced ^the 
American journalists that their militiamen were not (to use their own 
words) " better than French soldiers." 

Of the interior state of the Southern army we have heard little; but 
the glimpses which Mr. Russell obtained and communicated are in ac- 
cordance with what we might expect, and the council of war at Fort 
Donnelson bears similar testimony to its unmilitary condition. From the 
Northern side the intelligence has been ample, and abounds in incidents 
which illustrate the want of discipline; they embrace every variety of 
disorder, from the careless use of arms, and the independence of sentinels 
on duty, to attacks on officers and mutinies in regiments. And it is not 

c 2 



20 MILITARY SKETCH 

surprising that it should have been so; the private soldiers required a' 
judicious rule, firm but temperate : how much judgment or temperance 
was there amongst the officers ? What could be the state of a regiment 
in which (according to a New York paper) the major was drunk in his 
tent, the lieutenant -colonel was drunk on parade, and the colonel being 
tried for drunkenness, all at one and the same time ? The paper may 
have added to the truth ; but think how far the evil must have gone for 
such a tale to be told. After the first three months there were many 
changes among the officers, and another American paper doubts whether, 
out of 225 who had lately left, 25 had quitted their regiments without 
dishonour. Such was the judgment of their own press, and I can set 
nothing against it. Some few officers there were who had gone through 
the military college at West Point, and we may hope that there were 
many honourable exceptions to the general rule; but the majority earned 
for themselves, by ignorance and bad example, a most evil reputation in 
the early part of the war. When we think how much this must have 
checked the improvement of the army, we need not wonder that the 
main body did so little. A general would not be blamed for delaying an 
attack until his numbers were equal to the emergency; and want of dis- 
cipline is a more dangerous failing, a more fatal weakness, than want of 
men. 

I can well understand that the arms of the Federals should be excel- 
lent, their materiel of artillery magnificent, and their appearance on parade 
imposing ; but the internal state of an army is not to be learned by seeing 
it march past at a review ; and it seems to me that so great a change as 
would transform the Federal forces into a disciplined body must require a 
great space of time. 

There are still other things to be weighed and considered before we 
blame either side for not showing us more operations on a large scale. 
Much of the country is still so covered with wood as to be unsuitable for 
great manoeuvres, and the want of well-made roads would utterly prevent 
long marches, except in dry weather, or on routes where the railways 
could lend their aid. That roads should be few is only natural, consi- 
dering that the population is still thin ; but it is singular that in America 
they have been outstripped by railways, and iron tracks are now the first 
good communications made between rising towns. In Missouri, for 
instance, there are 720 miles of railway, whilst, a few years ago, there 
were only five macadamised roads, which led from St* Louis a few miles 
towards the interior; but it is on roads and not railways that a general 
must rely in his first invasion of an enemy's country. 

As the country and the roads influenced the movements, so would the 
nature of the contest give a character to the earlier plans. In every civil 
war there is sure to be one or more districts where the inhabitants are 
divided in feeling between the combatants, and to establish one party in a 
superiority is the object of the first expeditions and encounters. Hence 
the operations in Western Virginia, Missouri, and Kentucky. Next in 
such cases is likely to come an attempt by the stronger side on the capital 
of the weaker, aided, if possible, by diversions on scattered points of his 
frontier. From this general maxim, rather than strategical plan, the first 
advance towards Richmond, and the expeditions of Burnside, Sherman, 



OF THE PRESENT WAR IN AMERICA. 21 

and Butler have sprung. The invasion of Tennessee from Cairo, and the 
simultaneous advance through Kentucky from the Ohio are more nearly 
allied to the art of war, but still to be traced to the sympathies of the 
inhabitants. 

Wherever the opponents meet on neutral ground, the weaker in arms 
and numbers cannot fail to be worsted, unless led by a superior skill 
which we can hardly expect to see. In the after part may come a period 
when strength may begin to rise out of the results of weakness; once out 
of reach of the formidable artillery, which is unendurable if it cannot be 
stormed or silenced, activity and daring may outweigh numbers — 
vindictive despair may compensate for inferiority of personal weapons — 
or the passive resistance of a united people make victory fruitless and 
subjugation impossible. 

The Southern States are now approaching a crisis, which has only 
been hitherto deferred by the inability of the North to wield its weapons 
of offence. If the Confederacy of the South is not prepared to stand, 
it should not have been hasty to rise ; if it cannot be patient to endure, 
it should not have been bold to strike. I see no reason to doubt that its 
spirit is true, but future events will speak for themselves : having 
explained to the best of my ability those which are past, my task is over ; 
I have only to thank you for your attention, and to conclude by wishing 
you a better guide to the further scenes of the American War. 



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